We kick off the 193rd edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast with a bit of a PSA from Facebook. The social giant is rolling out tools to help people get the Covid-19 vaccine.

While Dave and I have some misgivings about the “public” service here from Facebook, we both agree that you should get a vaccine. From there, we sit down and talk with Vladimir Kuskov, Head of Advanced Threat Research and Software Classification at Kaspersky, on what the latest is with the Microsoft Exchange zero days and their exploitation. We then head to the world of deepfakes for a pair of stories. The first takes a look at some machine vs. machine battle. A new software is able to identify whether a video is a deepfake or real McCoy based upon reflections in the eyes. The second story of the deepfakes takes a look at woman in Pennsylvania who created pictures and videos of rivals to her daughter on the cheerleading team.

We then cross the pond to discuss a hoovering campaign by the Home Office. Sure it was an “experiment,” but is it really? To close out the show, we look at Nvidia’s battle against cryptomining.

In episode 193 of the Transatlantic Cable, Dave and Jeff look at news around a new ransomware attack that hit a bank in the US, which also included a doxing angle few expected.

From there they look at a story over on Threatpost about Google’s decision to begin the process of removing third-party tracking cookies from its browser.  However, the technology they’re looking to replace it with, FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) is not without its critics.

From there, there’s discussion on DeepFakes and the business opportunities they may hold, along with the concerns that people still have with them.  To wrap up, They briefly touch on a breaking news story around the European Banking Authority being hit by a Microsoft Exchange attack.

Welcome to the 191st iteration of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast. On this week’s episode, Dave and I discuss fines, privacy, doxing and more.

To kick things off, we look at a pair of stories that discuss fines levied on social networking sites. The first pertains to TikTok and minors, while the second one discusses Illinois ruling against Facebook in a class action suit. From there, we stay on the social media train and discuss a recent move from Twitter to flag false information pertaining to Covid-19 vaccines.

From there, we hop into an interview that David did with our HR team about the future of work, state of HR and more. We close out the podcast talking about a doxing that comes for users of Gab from a hacktivist group.

For the 190th episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I focus on two main topics: Facebook vs. Australia (and EU) & Clubhouse.

We kick things off in the spot the cool kids are raving about on the Internets: Clubhouse. The invite-only, audio-focused iOS App has taken Silicone Valley and the social network conversation by storm, not for all the right reasons though. In these two stories, we look at a developer who created an android app to use Clubhouse and also a short-lived site that scraped content of the site and published it for anyone to see. So needless to say, privacy is a wee bit of a concern. From there, we jump into a recent announcement from Nvidia looking to alter some graphic cards to dissuade cyrpto-mining.

To close out the podcast, we take a look at the current showdown between Australia and Facebook. We discuss the current situation, the history as well as how this could impact other countries or Unions (See, Europe). I also give my take which is not overly a popular one, but maybe some of you agree with it.

In episode 189 of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable, Jeff and myself talk a look at some stories you might have missed this week. We start by taking a look at a recent story from Threatpost, which looks at recent research that health apps are vulnerable to different forms of attack. From there, we take a dive into a story looking at iMessage, drug-deals and the police – hint: the story doesn’t end well for the bad-guys.

We then move onto a concerning story around a former employee of a firm, who’s accused of lacing the company network with ransomware after being let go. Talk about holding a grudge.

We end on a fun note with the recent “I’m not a cat” zoom call blunder. Remember, on the internet nobody knows you’re a cat.

We’ve got a jumbo version of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast for you all this week – complete with the usual array of stories, but also an interview to help shed some light on some recent financial news.

To kick off Episode 188, we dive into the world of cryptocurrency. First, we look to the purchase of $1.5B in Bitcoin by Tesla and then hop over into the surge of Dogecoin as of late. Since both of these tie nicely with the recent hullabaloo with RobinHood and WallStreetBets (WSB), Dave sat down with Alexey Pupyshev, Waves Technologies evangelist, co-founder of Neutrino protocol and Gravity protocol to discuss crypto and what was really happening the last couple of weeks.

From there, we head to the state of Florida where a water treatment system was accessed not once, but TWICE, by an unidentified hacker who altered the water composition. Our fourth story of the day takes a look at the group behind Ziggy ransomware shutting up shop and posting the decryption keys online. To close things out, we take a look at a really weird story from the BBC on a photographer’s pictures of cows that were deemed too racy for Facebook ads.

In a special episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Jeff and I were lucky enough to chat with Tara Seals and Lindsey O’Donnel from Threatpost. During the podcast, we talk about the recent Capitol Hill attacks and what they mean for digital privacy, data security and even free speech.

Whilst talking about that, we also move onto other topics of discussion including looking at recent discussion around the balkanization (or splintering) of the internet into smaller, less open versions of the internet, or even cutting whole countries off from the World Wide Web.

To open up the 186th edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I return to one of our favorite punching bags – Facebook. Unlike many of our talks that center around privacy, data sharing or things like that, we dive into ads a bit.

How does this fit the podcast? Well let’s just say that it includes an article penned by someone who worked on the new Borat movie and ads about guns, tactical gear and what “Trump followers” see. From there, we stay in the bubble of influence and discuss the still-missing laptop that was stolen during the Capitol insurrection from Nancy Pelosi’s office. This tale is one that is turning stranger and stranger as the days go on.

Following that story, we stay in the world of law & order to give virtual high-fives and claps for the joint law enforcement effort that took down the Emotet network. To close things out, we head back to the realm of Facebook to discuss a new study that takes a look at the emotional and mental stresses that the social network has on teenagers.

For the 185th edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Jeff and I sat down with our good friend, Marco Preuss from the Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) to talk about the work he’s done looking at second hand devices and the data that was found on them.

The research is the culmination of weeks’ worth of trawling through these devices (hard-drives, mobile phones, laptops, etc.) in order to see what was left on them after they were sold. During the podcast, Marco talks about how much data is actually left on the devices – ranging from innocent documents right through to nude photos and other explicit or illegal information. The worrying thing is that many people believe they’ve deleted the data, but in actual fact it remains on the devices after deletion. Marco, Dave and Jeff also discuss what people can do to safely and securely wipe the data off their devices if they intend to sell them on.

For the 184th edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Jeff and I sat down with Claire Hatcher - head of business development for Kaspersky Fraud Prevention.

During the call, we discuss the wide-ranging issues surrounding fraud and how it affects its victims – something that’s often forgotten about as it’s sometimes portrayed as a “victimless crime.” We also chat about how people can best defend against fraud and scams, especially email and phone scams, and also briefly look at an upcoming webinar that Claire is hosting.

For the 183rd edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Jeff and I look at some of the big news stories doing the rounds in the cyber-security field.

This week, we dive back into the recent Capitol hill attacks with a news story suggesting that the house speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s, had one of her laptops stolen. The story goes on to suggest that it’s possible the thief was planning to sell it to Russia, but details are thing on the ground. Following that, we look at how the controversial app, Parler could soon see a return to Apple’s App store after Tim Cook recently said it could return, as long as it committed to better moderating the content published on the social network.

Moving away from the recent Capitol Hill attacks, we look at how fraudsters are *still* using verified Twitter accounts to scam people out of bitcoin, with recent estimates showing that over half a million has been stolen so far.

Finally, to wrap up we look at a Windows 10 flaw as well as a recent study showing how macaques (yes, monkeys) have learned to steal items of high-value as people are more likely to offer food in order to get their items back. Madness.

For the 182nd edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I tackle the biggest story of 2021 so far – the cyber ramifications of the insurrection at the US Capitol along with Twitter bans and more.

We kick the podcast by looking into an op-ed on ZDNet about the cybersecurity fallout of last week’s storming of the Capitol. Now, while I am pretty sure that everyone has seen it, but if you are living under a rock, please check out more here. Now what is not covered in the main news is the cyber impact of things. The rioters had physical access to, and even stole a few, computers during the occupation. Now while the article goes into some deep conspiracy levels, there are some things that really need to be considered. Following that, we talk about Parler, from it’s ban to takedown. Somewhere during that timeline, hackers have downloaded all of the public data from the platform – even things believed to be deleted. This will be an interesting story to keep an eye on as well as the doxing that is sure to come. We stay on this topic and look at Twitter’s ban of many accounts including the President of the USA as well as 70K Qanon members. This not only looks at the why, but also as to what the future may hold for privacy and censorship of the web. To close things out, we look at Angela Merkel’s take on the banning of Donald Trump and what it means.

Welcome to the first episode of the the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast (number 181 overall) of 2021. Unfortunately Covid is still here, but so are we (take that how you will).

To kick things off, we pour one out for Adobe Flash. The much maligned program has been put out to pasture by Adobe – please hold your joy as we take a moment of silence </sarcasm>. From there, we dive into the music world with a case of corporate espionage. In this case, Dave and I who is to blame MORE in this hacking and theft story involving Ticketmaster and an unnamed competitor. Now, we don’t do victim shaming here, but also point out some bad security operations.

Our third story heads back to another weird intersection – this time crime and IoT. In this tale, “hackers,” more likely script kiddies, are reusing leaked credentials to hack into IoT doorbells in their swatting efforts. To close things out, we stay in the IoT realm and look at an advisory from the NCSC on how to clean your devices before selling them on a secondary market or what you should do if you buy one used.

With Covid continuing to halt holidays, events and even work-place parties, trying to get everybody together is proving tough.  To that end, Dave and Jeff sat down with Alexander Ilin, senior internal communications manager here at Kaspersky to ask him about his time managing internal events.  From tools and apps needed, right through to what to do to keep your guests entertained – if you’re looking to host a family Christmas party or even a last minute business party, be sure to tune in.

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For this episode of the Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I welcome back both Maria Namestnikova and Marco Pruess from the company’s Global Research and Analysis Team.

During this 30+ minute conversation, we discuss how the fallout from Covid-19 will impact the world in 2021. Now we are not just talking hopping in planes again, but what is at stakes for the research leading up to that day. Also, we examine the concept of global citizens and transparent travellers.

In a very special episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable, Dave and Jeff sat down with Hamda Al Qubaisi, Formula 4 race-driver.  Hamda, originally from Abu Dhabi, talks with the Kaspersky team about her passion for driving and racing, travelling and what are some of her proudest achievements. 

Hamda also speaks about equality on the racetrack and why she thinks there’s a lack of women race-drivers on the tracks today.

In this very special episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable, Dave and Jeff leave the world of cyber-security to talk to GT-driver and Kaspersky ambassador, Antonio Fuoco.  Antonio started racing from a young age and is currently working in the simulator team. 

In this episode, Dave and Jeff spoke to him about his passion for racing, gaming as well as how he handles himself on and off the track.

In a very special episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable, Dave and Jeff put down their usual cyber-security hats and replace them with racing hats as they chat with Giuliano Alesi.  Giuliano, son of Jean Alesi, has a real passion for racing, with some of his earliest memories being of racing around tracks.  However, despite his love for racing Giuliano also has another love: music. 

During the 30 minutes, Dave and Jeff talk to Giuliano about these loves, plus what he hopes the future holds for him and racing.

There is no question that the Netflix show, The Queen’s Gambit has taken the world by storm. In a year when the world is upside down and everything is crazy with Covid-19, it is kind of fitting that a show based upon a cerebral game garnering all the attention.

At Kaspersky, we have a long history with chess and are the official cybersecurity partner of the FIDE World Chess Championship series. My wife had watched the show and a member of our PR team pitched me the idea of watching the show as part of a podcast. While I was skeptical of the fit for the weekly chats that Dave and I have, my friend Oksana noted that she had some angles that my amateur chess mind did not have in mind.

You see, my dear Russian friend had a good opportunity that, was in fact, too good to pass up. Instead of our usual format for the Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I welcomed on Costin Raiu – who you may know from his research work at Kaspersky – a noted chess lover and Dinara Saduakassova an International Master and Womens Grandmaster, 4-times World Chess Champion and Asian Women Champion.

During our 30+ minute chat, we discuss everything from Beth Harmon to international chess tournaments, getting kids involved with the games, stopping cheating and how computers have impacted the game.

In an odd turn of events, the 174th iteration of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast takes Dave and I back to slew of topics that were hot in 2018 – ransomware, Bitcoin prices and more.

To start things off, we hop into a story about the skyrocketing price of Bitcoin. Dave and I share some of our theories on the rise - We are NOT financial analysts so do not use our talk as investing advice. From there, we move into some new patents filed by Microsoft that may leave you scratching your head, especially if you use Teams.

Our third story takes a bit of a sad turn as Facebook’s crackdown on “political” ads seems to have negatively impacted small business owners, AKA the groups that Facebook has claimed that they want to be helping the most in this pandemic. From there, we jump to the 2020 version of snow days for school students. Instead of snow, ransomware is the culprit for kids in the Baltimore school system – the 25th largest system in the USA. To close out the podcast, we look at the twisting tale of Phantom Secure that is just a TV movie waiting to happen – thank you for writing this Joseph Cox.